Long and Winding Road

For those of you who receive OCK by e-mail you will notice that a duplicate posting was made for today. Well, that is the result of living through the weekend with an abscessed tooth, a swollen face and pain! The posting below is an old one but I hope you will enjoy it. Sorry for the confusion and now I'm off to see another dentist!

You shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you.


Deuteronomy 5:33a

I confidently told my daughter not to worry about my transportation for the day. After my appointment my plan was to catch the bus home. I miscalculated however. No buses went in my direction. Realizing that I had no other choice I began walking the three mile route home--grumbling. This had not been my plan; I was wearing only flip flops.

After one complaining mile it occurred to me that the time could be better used and so began thoughts on walking. . .with God. Much like my unexpected walk home, walking with God is full of the unexpected. We make plans of how we want to live, when we want to marry, have children, engage in careers, establish financial milestones, leaping ahead we set goals for retirement. Then suddenly the career goes bust, a spouse dies or infertility stops the family dream—our plans suddenly become flimsy flip flops.

Walking with God is a mystery. It’s a winding country road—you don’t know what’s ahead until you get there. It would be nice if we could have a ten mile visual. But, if we did we might take off running, leaving our walking Companion, because we could see the way by ourselves. God doesn’t want to lose us as a walking companion. The route may be different than what we planned but the companionship along the way will make it worthwhile.

I finished the remaining two miles talking with my Companion and my feet felt just fine when I got home!

Jesus, you walked for miles talking to people about the

Kingdom and your Father. Help me to stop trying to plan a life route

and instead enjoy your companionship.

Amen.